CHAPTER 5

She still felt like she was floating even as their first subject began. She kept smiling secretly whenever she remembered what Finn had done earlier. She glanced over at him in his seat. Since he was tall, he sat at the end of the last row, while she was in the middle section of the fourth row.

He was listening seriously to their teacher. Even though he often seemed playful, he turned serious during class—and she loved looking at him when he was in that serious mood. He looked even more handsome to her when his brow was furrowed while listening. It made him look like there were so many "brilliant ideas" running through his mind. She chuckled softly at the thought.

"Miss Williams, care to share what's so amusing so we can all be entertained too?" their spinster teacher, Miss Rolands, suddenly called out.

The smile vanished from her lips as she quickly averted her gaze from Finn, who had also turned to look her way.

Actually, all their classmates were looking at her!

"U-uhm..." Her cheeks burned, and she didn't know what to say.

Everyone was waiting for her answer.

"S-sorry, ma'am. I just remembered something funny," she stammered, not knowing what else to say.

"And who might that be, Miss Williams?" It seemed like their teacher wasn't going to let her off the hook.

All attention was still on her.

"James, Ma'am. Her crush from the other class," Finn suddenly cut in, breaking the silence.

She turned sharply to look at him, especially when their classmates started teasing her. He just winked at her and pretended to be busy writing again.

Even their teacher gave up because the whole class had started to buzz with laughter. She called for silence, while Zeph just kept her head down and buried her face in her book, ignoring the teasing. Soon, the class quieted down again and the discussion resumed.

It was break time. She stayed in her seat when she saw Finn approaching from the corner of her eye. She ignored him, still irritated.

"Here," he said, handing her a sandwich. She knew it was from his mom, and she was always included in whatever she packed.

"I'm full," she replied without even glancing at him.

"Hey, don't be mad. I did that to get you off the hook with Miss Rolands. You know she wouldn't stop unless you gave an answer," he explained, sitting on the chair beside her.

They were the only two left in the room; the rest of their classmates had gone to the canteen.

She still didn't respond. He started eating while still watching her. She pretended to be writing something in her notebook, but it was just filled with doodles.

"So, you're really not going to talk to me?"

She rolled her eyes, though she wasn't even looking at him.

Suddenly, he brought the sandwich to her lips. It was already unwrapped, and he was trying to feed it to her. The bread touched her lips.

"What are you doing?" she said, but there was no anger in her voice, and she didn't pull away either.

"There. You'll eat it now. Mom will be upset if you don't," he teased.

She dropped the pen she was holding and quickly grabbed the sandwich from his hand. She took a bite and rolled her eyes at him. He just smiled and continued eating. They were eating quietly when someone peeked in from the door.

It was James. What is he doing there? she wondered.

"Hi, who is Leigh?" he asked them with a slightly brusque tone.

She was even more surprised when she heard what he said. She almost choked when she remembered why

Maybe someone told him she had a crush on him!

She was about to answer, but Finn beat her to it.

"Why?" he asked formally.

If it were anyone else, they might've been intimidated by Finn's tone. But James, who had quite the ego and wasn't far behind Finn in looks—though of course Finn was still better looking—was unfazed by the way "her" Finn asked the question.

My Finn?! she thought, nearly turning red at the thought.

Finn looked at her and saw the expression on her face, assuming she looked that way because her "crush" was asking about her.

"I just want to know what she looks like."

Finn's eyebrows drew together. He clearly didn't like James's answer. Before he could say anything more, Crystal suddenly appeared and stood next to James.

"Yep, James, meet Zeph," she said with a smile, gesturing toward her like she was presenting something.

James looked directly at her and studied her face carefully.

"Oh, not bad," he said with a smirk.

Her brow arched, and she shot Crystal an annoyed glance.

So she's the blabbermouth!

Finn started to stand beside her, and she didn't even know why, when the bell suddenly rang—break time was over.

"Nice meeting you, Zeph," James said with a grin before quickly turning and leaving.

Their other classmates started trickling back into the room. Finn finally stood up to return to his seat.

"Jerk," she heard him mutter under his breath. She also saw how annoyed he looked.

"Why do you even like that guy?" he asked irritably, not even waiting for a response as he quickly walked back to his seat.

She was left blinking, watching him walk away.

Oh my God! He sounded jealous! Her heart wanted to cheer. She felt like hugging Crystal in gratitude for being such a gossip.

She was still smiling when class ended that afternoon. She walked over to Finn's desk to wait for him.

When he looked up, he saw the smile on her lips that didn't seem to want to go away.

"I see that you're still daydreaming," he said, still a bit annoyed.

"Huh? You're the one daydreaming," she replied, still smiling.

He stood up and looked at her seriously. She had to tilt her head up slightly to meet his eyes—he was tall, and she only came up to his neck.